


You Shouldn't Be Here

by DearHeartx



Series: Fictober 2018 [9]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Post-Break Up, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-21 05:21:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30016755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearHeartx/pseuds/DearHeartx
Summary: Ori finds comfort in Cullen after Solas' departure.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Solas (Dragon Age), Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford
Series: Fictober 2018 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802731
Kudos: 1





	You Shouldn't Be Here

Ori sat in his desk chair, her legs tucked up underneath her, and desperately tried to recall the last conversation they had in this room that wasn’t a fight. She remembered arguing about what happened at the glen in Crestwood, she remembered arguing about the Vir’abellasan, but before that her memory glazes over and she cannot recall anything with certainty. After another failed attempt, the tears came back and she rested her head against the chair’s thick padding, inhaling his familiar and comforting scent.

She was only vaguely aware that the door opened and closed again, the faint firelight casting across the floor before it is chased away. “Go away, Cole.” She tried to keep her tone even and gentle, but her crying jag has brought a hard edge to her usually lilting voice.

There’s an unsure shuffling of feet and then someone’s voice breaks the silence, “It’s…not Cole.”

Hmm, Cullen.

“You shouldn’t be here.” She doesn’t bother keeping her voice steady this time, the coming sob shortening her words.

She heard him swallow, his breaths shallow and nervous before he appeared on his knees in front of her. “What?” She glared at him.

“You haven’t slept.” It wasn’t a question. His hand reached out brushed an errant curl behind her ear.

She absently wondered if he’d been imbibing during the celebration to be so bold with his actions, but she was too tired to ask or even pull away from his touch. Instead she just stared at him, eyes sore and swollen from her tears.

“What are you doing in here?” He was no longer touching her face, but when he withdrew, he let his hands wrap around hers which were cold from the night air and lack of fire in the rotunda. She let them stay.

“I thought he might come back.”

He looked at her incredulously, as if he knew that wasn’t going to happen and she likely did, too.

“All of his books are here.” Ori argued weakly before a sudden sob wracked her body again.

“Would you like me to wait with you?”

Ori’s brow crinkled and she half smiled that Cullen didn’t argue with her, or try to convince her that Solas wasn’t returning. Instead, he just offered to wait with her.

When she nodded, Cullen gently tugged at her hands and pulled her from Solas’s desk chair toward the chaise lounge that was tucked in the corner. He sat down first and let her decide how close she wanted to sit to him.

She sat far enough away that their knees couldn’t touch, but that his hand was still comfortably clasped around hers.

After a few moments passed in such a fashion another vicious round of sobs were pulled from her at the mere thought that Solas would never finish the last section of his mural. As she cried she found herself collapsing against Cullen’s chest, thankful that for once in his life the man hadn’t donned his armor. His warm arms pulled her tighter to him and clutched at his shirt, already damp from her tears.

One arm loosened around her as he began to smooth back her hair. She noticed his breathing increased, to the point where she was just about to ask if he was okay when suddenly his voice broke through the air, his deep baritone reverberating against her ear as he sang an old Ferelden lullaby. 

Upon finishing, he kissed the top of her head and hugged her tightly to him again, but Ori pushed against the hug and propped herself up enough to look into his golden eyes. A long silence passed between them, a small frown on her face. Before she could talk herself out of it, she found his lips with her own. Warm and indeed tasting of firewhiskey.

“Ori, Ori—” He pushed her shoulders, trying to get space enough between them.

She looked at him, a shattered shell of the champion she’d been hours previously. A solitary tear rolled down her still damp cheek. “Just make me feel something else.” 

He sucked on his lower lip, a deliberative move that Ori had seen countless times in the war room. She took her opportunity to try again and placed a chaste kiss on his upper lip. “Please?” She begged, her eyes reflecting a deep and immeasurable pain.

Cullen cupped her face in his hand and nodded; that was all the okay Ori needed to make the pain stop. Anything to make the pain stop.

He was tentative at first, small kisses across her cheeks and mouth, but her fervor sparked his own. She tipped his head to deepen one of the kisses that grazed her lips and he was more than willing to reciprocate. A broken moan escaped him when she pushed against him, settling back down straddled across his lap.

For the first few minutes she had to fight against flashbulb memories of Solas’s smiles, laughs, kisses…but soon Cullen had garnered enough courage to let his hands wander, warm and firm against her body. His kisses traveled as well, moving from her face to her neck, her collarbone, the gentle swell of cleavage that her evening robes exposed. Heat had begun to spool low in her belly and her hips bucked against his almost as if of their own accord. The sound he made sent lightning bolts through her and she bucked against him by choice just to hear it again. His tongue found the curve of her pointed ears and she dug her fingers into his back in response.

“Cullen—,” the question was unspoken, but clear.

He pulled away and looked at her for a moment before answering. “Are you sure?”

She nodded emphatically as her fingers fell to his trousers and began to fumble with the knotted ties, kissing him all the while.

You shouldn’t be here, she thought to herself.

But this felt so much better than crying.


End file.
